disk harrrow question for kabota

[BASSIN20]

Ok fellow tractor owners, I am another one of the newbies to the web site. I have been reading all the good information posted here for well over a year now and decide to jump in with the rest of you. I have an issue that may be you all can help me with. I recently retired my old Allis Chalmers tractor
(owned and operated for 23 years) and went last year and bought myself a new M4800 (50hp) Kubota. And along with that purchase I bought the land
(40 acres) next door to me which gives me 45 total acres. the land was in row crops when I bought it and I need to disk it down in order to replant grass for pasture. I have been looking for a 10 ft disk harrow, but I have been told by some the M4800 won't pull it and I have been told by some it will. Granted I am not trying to turn the ground over (dig deep) to replant row crops. I just want to plow it enough to level the ground out and use it year to year in planting winter grass. I just want to make sure I don't go off and buy some thing the M4800 can't handle. it would be nice if I knew someone that had a 10 footer I could borrow to try but I don't. So basically what's the right size harrow for the tractor in hand?

 

[Bob_Young]

2WD or 4WD?

 

[Z-Michigan]

I run a 6.5' disk behind a JD 5105, 50hp MFWD utility tractor, very similar to your M4800. I have zero problems and in fact could pull a lot more disk than that, probably a 10'. My soils are moderately heavy too, and I generally am pulling in 2wd and with fairly light throttle. There is another user on here with a Kioti DK45 cab and I think he uses a 10' or 12' disk behind that.

It will depend somewhat on whether you have MFWD and how light or heavy your soils are. I know nothing about Louisiana soils. But I suspect you would be ok.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

Good luck figuring this one out. A lot of variables, Type, size, weight, wheel transport so that you could control cut depth? What type of ground?
Here are two examples that I can give you from what I have.

I have an 8' and 12' Kilfer(John Deere) offset pull disks. Both have the heaviest 22" notched disks that were available. I have rolling hills that are mostly topsoil. I pull the 8 footer with my 75hp Mahindra that weighs over 10,000lbs when I pull the disk. Now most of my ground gets disked twice a year and I disk with the angle set 1 notch short of maximum angle. On the 2nd time around the disk is 9" or axle deep. Even with all of my weight it is about all that my tractor will do to pull that disk up our hills and they are not really all that steep. I do not run out of power, I run out of traction. The 8 footer is about all that I would pull with the circumstances that I have to deal with.

I pull my 12' disk with an old Cat D6, and it has the same problem as my Mahindra. While pulling up hill the Cats' tracks will slip a little on the 2nd time around. As you know, crawlers have a lot of traction and for the tracks to slip, well there is a huge amount of drag put on the tractor from that disk. There are a few guys here that are pulling wider disks than I pull with my Mahindra with a tractor smaller than mine. How they do that I don't know other than they have a whole different set of circumstances than I do.

As I said to start with, good luck.

 

[texasjohn]

Welcome to TBN as a poster!!!

OK... so you are just looking to move from row crops to grass pasture for 45 acres and have a 50hp tractor.

My opinion is that it will pull a 10' disk just fine. I assume you are looking at one with a hydraulic lift and wheels to get it off the ground during transport?

The wheels and hydraulics are key. Reason is that how much pull you have is determined by:

1) the weight of the harrow, which is the amount of metal + any additional weight you add.
2) depth of penetration of the disks, determined by disk size, type of disk scolloped or round, soil type, moisture content, litter on surface, prior field work.
3) angle of the disk gangs
4) speed of pull, There is a "right" speed where the ground shatters best and turns over easiest... faster or slower is harder.
5) if your pull is too hard, one option is to lower your wheels thus raising your harrow to reduce penetration and take some weight off the disks.

So, while there are many variables, I think that you will discover that you will disc a couple of times, plant pasture grasses and then let it be.

Most important will be the hydraulic wheels
next is 4wd ... but your tractor is what it is.
A more narrow harrow will clearly require more passes over the ground and that's time and fuel cost.

My recommendation is go for the 10' harrow but make sure it's got hydraulic lift wheels.

 

[JoeinTX]

By and large, it should handle a 10' disc.

Is it hydro or gear drive? May/may not make a difference, but there is more power loss to the rear drive with hydro trannies which could give you trouble. A standard duty 10' pulled by a gear tranny 50hp rig at reasonable depth will be okay.

Short of that, you should be able to drag an 8' all over the place without any trouble....

 

[RobJ]

My neighbor has a Ford 4630 (60hp) that pulls a med weight 10' 3pt disk. pulls easy but it will bog in twice disked sandy loam. of course that same disk in the same soil would bog my BIL old MF 1080. That's a 90hp tractor.

Down here you not only need to disk but drag it after. They use everything from a cattle guard to 3 tractor tires bolted together.

40-acres gonna take some time, might need to hit it twice then drag.

Post some pics!!

 

[BASSIN20]

2WD or 4WD?

my tractor is 2 WD, looked hard at the 4 WD and just couldn't justify the cost. in all my years of owning tractor I never had 4 WD and have basically learned when to leave the ground alone. My tranny is gear drive. My soil is sandy loom which comes from a river not to far away. I like the suggestion some of you responded in getting a disk with hydraulic lift so I can control cutting depth.GOOD IDEA and I know I need to come up with some type of drag contraption to level out the ground. This I think,I can use an old piece of railroad rail in the neighborhood of 20' long.

 

[chh]

The old railroad iron works good as a drag, wish I could run across a couple of pieces that long. The 10' will be a handful for that tractor if you get it all the way in. Of course the style and weight of the disc have a lot to do with it. I have 3 point 8' disc that I used to pull with a Ford 4600(about 50 hp). I also have a 10' offset disc with hydraulic lift that would give a MF481 with FWA all it wanted in the right soil conditions when the blades got all the way in. They hydraulics are very nice for that since a little bump on the lever will usually pop it up and get you past those spots.

 

[bbirder]

I use a 7ft disc on my M4900. It is 3 pt and has no problems handling it.I only have 2wd but my tractor also has a foot pedal to lock up both rear wheels. I would think you could handle a 10ft, just don't try cutting it all in one pass. Does your tractor have remote hydraulics. You will need this if you go with a disc with wheels.

 

[WTA]

My neighbor has pulled my 10 foot disc with his kubota which is the same model as yours I think. It's a 50 horse with industrial tires and 4 wheel drive. He didn't have any trouble on his little 5 acres but then again, we changed the offset a little to make it easier for him too. My last tractor was an old MM with only 45 HP and it pulled it fine. I only got stuck once that I can remember and that was while turning on a corner in the mud. My hydraulics had all kinds of problems on that tractor and sometimes I couldn't lift the disc up.
Now I have a 100 horse machine and I don't even know the disc is there.

I think you will be fine with a 10 foot but 45 acres is a lot of ground to cover in a tractor that small. Wear your sunscreen.

 

[RonR]

If you purchased the tractor locally, I'd speak with the dealer--he should know the conditions of the soil and the capability of the tractor. Tell him what you want to do, and he should have "an input".

If you are planning to buy the disk from him or another dealer, tell them what you are planning, settle on a price, and have them deliver it. The final condition of the sale is IF your tractor can handle 10FT. When it arrives, take it to the toughest part of your property and disk a small area two or three times, to see how good a seedbed it can make in multiple passes, not lose traction, yada, yada. With the dealer watching (and helping you adjust it), you can make your final decision.

It would help if your dealer had an 8ft as well, so he'd know that you would buy one or the other. I would think any good dealer would be willing to do this--at least, around here they do.

My two cents. Hope this helps.
ron

 

[texasjohn]

One more trick I've used... when I had a different (smaller) tractor ...

After disking a couple of times, if it now sinks too deep, one option is to remove disks from the end of each gang, maybe 1 set at a time, until it gives you the balance between depth, pull, width, speed you are looking for.

 

[BASSIN20]

To bbirder
Our two tractors are basically the same, as matter of fact the first time I climbed under my M4800 to change the hydraulic filters. I noticed the tranny had "M4900" cast into the housing. To answer your question, yes, I do have remotes, at the time I bought the tractor I was an avid reader of this site and had read one of the postings where it was said to get the remotes when you first buy the tractor as you will save a few buck's as a package deal. At the time I didn't have a reason for having remotes, but now I'm glad I did it and I am begining to realize the value of having them after all. All at the same time visioning($$$) a wood splitter, post driver and other neat hydraulic tools. Needless to say my bride doesn't quite share in the vision. LOL

 

[BASSIN20]

My neighbor has pulled my 10 foot disc with his kubota which is the same model as yours I think. It's a 50 horse with industrial tires and 4 wheel drive. He didn't have any trouble on his little 5 acres but then again, we changed the offset a little to make it easier for him too. My last tractor was an old MM with only 45 HP and it pulled it fine. I only got stuck once that I can remember and that was while turning on a corner in the mud. My hydraulics had all kinds of problems on that tractor and sometimes I couldn't lift the disc up.
Now I have a 100 horse machine and I don't even know the disc is there.

I think you will be fine with a 10 foot but 45 acres is a lot of ground to cover in a tractor that small. Wear your sunscreen.

yes your right 45 acres is a lot to cover but I figured I would break it up into 10 or 11 acre sections and do it over a few weeks. I guess it is a good thing I don't need to do it all at one time or else I would need some sun screen or a good brand of barbeque sauce.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

yes your right 45 acres is a lot to cover but I figured I would break it up into 10 or 11 acre sections and do it over a few weeks. I guess it is a good thing I don't need to do it all at one time or else I would need some sun screen or a good brand of barbeque sauce.

As much sunscreen that you will need over the lifetime of your tractor, it would be cheaper to buy a sunshade (canopy) for your tractor. That way you'll always be in the shade.

 

[firefighter9208]

To bbirder
Our two tractors are basically the same, as matter of fact the first time I climbed under my M4800 to change the hydraulic filters. I noticed the tranny had "M4900" cast into the housing. To answer your question, yes, I do have remotes, at the time I bought the tractor I was an avid reader of this site and had read one of the postings where it was said to get the remotes when you first buy the tractor as you will save a few buck's as a package deal. At the time I didn't have a reason for having remotes, but now I'm glad I did it and I am begining to realize the value of having them after all. All at the same time visioning($$$) a wood splitter, post driver and other neat hydraulic tools. Needless to say my bride doesn't quite share in the vision. LOL

I have an M4800 with a 6.5' disk about 78" ground coverage. The manual that came with my tractor says that a 7' is the max width. If you are planning on turning the ground with a turning plow first a 7' or 8' disk is as wide as I would go. My 6.5' is a heavy duty model and weighs in at almost 1000#.

I personally wouldn't go wider than 8', because I think you would have problems with a 10' disk in turned ground. Your tractor being 2wd, like mine, will run out of traction pulling the disk before it runs out of horsepower. If your tractor were FWA (4wd) you might be ok with a 10' pull behind as you could raise the disk when you loose traction.

I have pulled a 10' grain drill and my tractor did ok, but if the ground had been softer or wetter I am sure that I would have had traction problems.

I hate to see you spend a lot of money on a 10' disk and then have to turn around and sell it to buy one more suitable for your tractor. Maybe you have a farmer that is a neighbor that would let you try one out behind your tractor before you lay down your cold hard earned cash.

On the topic of the rear remotes and toys (I mean tools). I have slowly over the past 4 years added a hydraulic log splitter ($300 for it and a rear blade used) and a grapple that I run off the rear hydraulics. You now will be able to add those extra attachments as you "need" them.

The only regret that I have is that I only had one remote put on the tractor when I ordered it instead of two.

 

[texasjohn]

bassin20, if you are intending to drive T posts, you already have a post driver... your FEL... or FLE as your public information says

 

[BASSIN20]

bassin20, if you are intending to drive T posts, you already have a post driver... your FEL... or FLE as your public information says

YES, Your absolutely right about the FEL being used to drive "T" post. My biggest problem is having extra help needed to do it using the FEL. Most of the time I am working alone so I have to figure out ways one person can accomplish the task with out getting hurt. althought the exercise climbing up and down off the tractor isn't a bad thing either. Thanks for pointing out my spelling error, when you open up your profile box it doesn't let you see evrything you have written. So up until now I didn't know I typed it in wrong. thanks.

 

[RobJ]

bassin20, if you are intending to drive T posts, you already have a post driver... your FEL... or FLE as your public information says

Well this may be more fun. If you are down south, this time of year where the gound is damp, bed rock is 1000+ feet down, and your not in that red clay, you can actually drive T-posts probably 5 to 1 and it be just about as easy. About 3 decent wacks to cover the blade thingy and move on. In 1999 we had a real long hard drout and were putting up some fence around deer feeders. This was not hard soil. Took 3 guys rotating about 25 wacks to put one down(and Frank goes about 280). these were the standard cast type T's. While a FEL would have helped, I could see some post getting bent going into the ground...maybe all being bent. That same soil after the rains came...about 3 wacks to get into the top soil. I've never punished my hands more than that weekend.